Operation TIPS

The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, drafted and endorsed by the administration of President George W Bush with the unsurprising full support of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, immediately fell under criticism for, shall we say, a Stalinist-era proto-fascism that you have to admire the balls on these guys for trying to ram through.

 

Introduced in 2002 during Patriot Actmania, Operation TIPS would have instituted private citizens - specifically maintenance workers, utility service workers, landlords, employees of the United States Postal Service and others who have routine access to the private homes and properties of other Americans - as unofficial agents of the authorities. TIPS-happy citizens would be expected to, sans warrants and monitored process, provide (and here's our mnemonic device) tips to the local authorities on evidence of suspected terrorism which might be encountered in their incursion, ushering in an exciting era where the nurse you hired to take care of your bedridden grandfather might turn the old fella in for calling Bush a "dickhead."

 

Keeping in mind that information gleaned outside of substantive due process by citizens acting as agents of the police is not admissable in court, and that in general Operation TIPS circumvented both the first and fourth amendments.

 

Mister Mcfeely, Agent of T.I.P.S.

The United States Postal Service famously withdrew its support for Operation TIPS, refusing to expose their employees to the possible danger and murky legal footing of acting as de facto officers of the police. At the same time, criticism was levied against the project from both sides of the floor, from such disparate voices as Rep.Dick Armey (R-Tex) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Ver), and furthermore from civil liberty organizations on both sides of the fence.

 

Inasmuch as Ashcroft was, during his tenure, more interested in the continuing bullshit War on Drugs than the War on Terror - particularly on casual users, who were specifically targetted during his tenure as State Attorney General of Missouri) - you can sort of see where Operation TIPS would have really ended up.